Atomization refers to dispersing a liquid as a stream or spray of relatively minuscule droplets. Atomization and apparatus for atomizing liquids are useful in a wide variety of endeavors wherein deposition of a liquid material over a surface area is required. Numerous factors important to atomization include overall droplet size, spray pattern or dispersal, overall flow rate through the liquid atomizing device (referred to as an atomizer), etc. These and other factors are determined to a significant extent by the geometric characteristics of the atomizer.
Another important consideration in this field is cost of production. This area of concern has suffered in the past due to the relatively high cost of producing atomizers of suitable performance. The general experience has been that such atomizers are relatively complex in form and of tight dimensional tolerances that are difficult (and thus costly) to produce, especially in quantity.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide liquid atomizers that exhibit suitable performance characteristics, methods for their use, and methods for producing them in quantity at relatively low cost.